Last Sunday at our temporary home, and its here!!

Will all the hassles of the past months be worth it when we eventually get sorted?

Well, goodness knows....I have a feeling its only just started. At the begining of this venture (home being refurbished) I firmly believed that everything was going to be done together in the space of a couple of months, but this hasen't proved the case. However, all the main work is finished, so I suppose I should be greatfull for that. Our new bedroom wont be compleated for several weeks, and the TV bed is on order! I was hoping the bedroom would be finished before it arrived, but I dont think this will happen now, so when the bed arrives we will have to store it untill the bedroom is fitted, along with the carpet...The bathroom hasent even been started as Derek and I had a difference of opinion over which way to go about it. I think Derek has finally come around to my thinking about knocking out our smallest bedroom to make a huge bathroom, instead of extending it over the garage. My idea was more practical really!! The deciding factor for me was the weight of the jaccuzi spa, which is going to be more than twice the weight of our standard bath. If we extended over the roof of the garage we would have to have the roof reinforced to take the weight, and this would only add to the cost! Lets face it! I dont want to be relaxing in my spa and suddenly fall through the roof!!!!! I have decided on the look I want for the new bathroom and I am aiming for a Balinese style spa. As you know I have spent rather a lot of time on Bali, and their traditional spa's are very beautiful indeed!! This reminds me that I should draw a plan and post it here! I also plan to grow jasmine in small pots set onto the walls...well we shall see.......Derek was worried about loosing the forth bedroom, which he was using as his office. But its realy too small to be used as a bedroom and I feel it would be better to have a huge impressive bathroom instead of a tiny * box* room!!
For the past few days I have been packing up our belongings to make ready for our move on either tuesday or wednesday and its been bloody hard work. We also have to clean our rented home from top to bottom, which included windows so we can get our deposit back. The only thing the landlord has insisted on is a fumegation of all the carpet because we have a dog!!! What a cheek!!! Sirius is the cleanest dog ever!! He also has a weekly bath, and a daily brush!! But we have to do this as its in the contract. Derek has already arranged it for thursday so I hope everything will be ok.
No Sunday roast for today. Derek and I will be too busy!!! There is still lots of things to be shifted back home so lunch will be a very lo-key affair! Anyway, an early night tonight, and also I might not be able to update my blog for a while with the move going on!!
Fun, fun, fun.............NOT!!!!!!

My English is rubbish....my spelling and grammer, worse!!!!!!!

...but I have decided to take up French again as several fellow Brothers at my Lodge are native, French! Indeed, my Order "Le Droit Humain" is French, and was stated there over 100 years ago, so I think its only right I dip my toes back into this delightful language, so I can convers with my brothers, and in the hope of the odd trip to France!
I seem to pick up languages fairly easy, but I dont speak anything "fluent"...at school I picked up French ok but I was not considered good enough to go onto German! Ironically, while on a trip to Germany aged 14, I was almost fluent after a week!!!! Well, bit of an exageration there but I was going into bars with my dad and ordering beer and food in good German. My dad was very impressed!! I would have certainly liked to have go onto learn German properly at school and collage, but I was held back by my old school policy of not being taught German unless your French was proficient!! Silly realy!!
During my time backpacking, I picked several usefull phrases of about 7 different languges. Namely, Nepalese, Tibetian, Thai, Mandarin Chinese, Urdu, Hindi, and my favorite Bhasa Indoniesian!! I say this is my favorite as it is a very easy language to learn!! and I spoke it on several subsequent trips to Bali and Java! The Neplaese came in very handy on the Everest trek too, as did Tibetian as Everest is in the Solu Khumbu region which is inhabited by Tibetan Sherpa's!
"Raksi Laygyo!!"
Was my favotire...it means "I am DRUNK!!" in Tibetan
It's great learning a few basics of a language though, when your traveling! Even if its just pleasentries and hello and goodbye. Interacting with the locals is much better too!
So French it is! well for now, anyway!
It will certainly take my mind off the impending move back to our own house in a few days. On that note the decoration is just about compleate and we had the survayers in today from our fitted bedroom company, Hammonds. The house is starting too look excellent and not like a builders atomic explosion!! Thank goodness!!
ta ta!! x

Opps.......forgot to charge my ipod for tonight........*buggers off to charge ipod*

What a week it has been!!! Phewwwwww!!!!

We have both been as busy as a one arm juggler with crabs!!

But to top it all I got a call from Mum yesterday morning to say she had found a sick seagull in her garden and asked me to look after it. So basically, Derek and I had to drop everything and dart around there to retrieve the seagull. It had started to snow heavily at this point, and I am sure if we had left her there, she would have died, either frozen to death or at the mercy of some cat or Sparrow hawk. I could not let this happen!!! I got her wrapped in a towel and brought her back home and gave her the run of the bathroom, as well as giving her some bread and tuna and water. Later yesterday afternoon I began to phone around various animal charities, and eventually found the Seagull rescue in Eastbourne and called them and spoke to a realy nice chap called Tim. He asked me to nurse her and keep her warm so I wrapped her back in her towell and brought her downstairs (much to Sirius amusement!) After an hour of this and too my horror I saw what looked like flea's crawling through her feathers!!! Terrified that Sirius would pick them up I rushed her back up stairs and did an internet search for bird flea's without much success! By this morning they were all over her head....and thankfully dead!!! So just to make sure I gave her a salty water bath which she loved and then called a nice lady called Margeret at an animal hospital in Milton Keynes. She readilly agreed to take my feathered charge and we took her round there at lunchtime today. Later this afternoon I phoned Margeret to ask how she was settling in and she said great!! She confirmed the bird was indeed an adult female, but terribly thin and this may have been caused by the so called flea infestation which actually turned out to be mites! Margeret said she would give her great care and rehabilitation and expected to be with her for 2 months, she also said I did well to rescue the poor Gull........and she has called the Seagull, Vicky, after me!! Awwwwwwwwww!!!!
Well at least I did somthing right for a change!!
Now for the house updates!!
We move back into our home in the first few days of March, but it is far from compleate, although everything has been arranged to some extent or another. The bedroom's bathroom's, dining room and livingroom have now been redecorated but we cannot get the fitted bedroom in for another couple of weeks as it has been specially ordered from Italy! After which we can have our ordered carpets fitted. The bathroom, which is next on our to do list will have to be done while we are living there as Derek and me have not decided what to do with it yet.......Derek wants to extend it over the roof of the garage, but I have suggested knocking the smaller bedroom (which was Dereks office) into the bathroom to make it bigger. Or house is 4 bedroom, but I think 3 bedroom and a huge bathroom would be enough, and Derek could use my old front office as his office ( I have offically retired now) I think Dereks "over the garage" idea is a bit ambitious and could run into tens of thousands, but either way it has to be done by summer....so long as I get my planned Jaccuzi bath and home spa, I don't realy mind which way we do it!!
Just to finish on a lighter note, Derek and I were around our house today while the decorators were there and one of them asked me what the steel attachment to the ceiling was? He commented on that it looked like a fire sprinkler but wasen't.....I felt myself blushing as I admitted it was the attachment for my pole dance pole!!
As we were leaving he grinned at me and said "Why can't I get the image of your pole dancing out of my head!?"
hehehehehehe

...Just slightly.......

I had to meet mum in town this morning as she had some business at the bank. But for some wildlly weird reason I definatly had my shopping head on today and went on a weeny bit of a spree!!
First off was a visit to HMV to pick up the DVD I had ordered a couple of weeks ago. They called me yesterday to say it was ready. Then off to Beatties which is our House of Fraiser and got some delightful clobber, as well as treating mum too. Next was Faith where I got some sandals with the hope of a nice summer and they joy of getting out of my boots...very optimistic here, I think. Then mum and I had a pleasent lunch. On the house refurb front we had the beginings of our new living room cieling fitted today. It looks really odd with all our natural oak beams down and stacked up the wall, but things seem to be moving at a respectable pace now. I have also bought Derek and extra special Valentines day present, and am planning a romantic dinner on Sunday!! Hope that goes well.
Tomorrow I have my Lodge, and our new RWGM will be installed, which I am looking forward too! The evenings festive board will turn into a party methinks. and Derek has just said to call him when I am ready to come home. It could be a late evening!!! I hope that my Ills Bro. Terry mentions my taking my second Degree as I am so dreadfully behind on my Masonic learning! In a year or so when I take my 3rd degree, this will confirm me as a Master Mason, and I will be able to fullfill, fully my duties within my Lodge. After this I would like to work towards the 18th degree in the Scottish rite, which is the Rosy Cross, but that is a long way off and I have so much to learn.
Bit like life really!! ;)
Back soon x

Ok, I like doing lists!! and this is no exception!!
I decided to do my all time favorite books EVER!!!........so its a horror overload, but some surprizes too!!!

1. Something Wicked this way comes by Ray Bradbury!!

2. Misery by Stephen King!

3. The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory!

4. The Magic Cottage by James Herbert!

5. Pet Cemetary by Stephen King!

6. Watership Down by Richard Adams

7. 1984 by George Orwell

8. War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

9. The Ghost of flight 401 by John G. Fuller!

10. Funhouse by Dean Koontz

11. Dark Feasts by Ramsey Campbell

12. Himalaya by Nicholas Luard

13. The Constant Princess by Phillipa Gregory!

14. Lord of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkien

15. At the mountains of Madness by HP Lovecraft

16. Mary Queen of Scots by Antonia Frasier

17. Tictock by Dean Koontz

18. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

19. Anne Boleyn by Eric Evyes

20. The Other Queen by Phillipa Gregory!

Jus ploughing through some old photos (in some cases very old) from my files!!

Some of Derek as a youngster, and graduating with his degree from University. And a couple of me on a trip to Bali several years ago, and a few of my pud, pud, Sirius!!! Taken last years!!

During my nightly call to mum last night she mentioned she wanted to go into town sometime this week, and this morning when it was frosty, but sunny, I thought, well, at least its not raining. I called her, and shortly after 10am we were in town looking at DVD's in HMV! I got Ladryinth and Moon on blu-ray, and mum got Morcombe and Wise. I also ordered "Mary Queen of Scots" which is a very rare dvd of the 1972 film starring Vanessa Redgrave. I have checked it before on ebay but the prices are so very high for it, because its rare, that I decided to ask how much it would be to order, and it was a reasonable £16!! But I wont get it for 2 weeks, oh well.....Next we had a wander down to home-bargins and TK Maxx, and I must have had my shopping head on as I spent rather much more than I had bargined for!! Now mum has on-going problams with her feet and back so she is always on the lookout for super comfortable shoes. Me on the other hand was delighted to find some "Croc's" walking shoes, for taking Sirius out. I have been looking for these for ages, and prices seemed a bit high on ebay so I was delighted fo find them for a steal at £15. Mum was sat resting on a seat in the shoe section and I came back and plonked my Croc's in the basket.
"Crikey! Those look comfortable!! and they are so light weight! have they got my size?" she asked.
I scoured the shelves for mum's size 6 (I am a 4) and after several minuits I found a pair, which she tried on and was delighted with. So I treated her!! Not content with just treating Mum to some Croc's I began looking for a size 10!! Dereks size!! Now I am very carefull when buying shoes for Derek because he is an awkward size 9 and a half! So I ususally look for a ten. I found some and bought them for him. Fortunatly they fitted perfectly, and he was very pleased. So that joke of the day was, me, mum and Derek are all OLD CROC'S!!
Later on at about 1pm, mum and I had lunch at her favorite cafe!
When Derek picked us up from the market square, we went on to Morrisons, where Derek found "Rogers and Hammerstien" musicals collection and decided to treat mum to it......At this point I wondered if he was feeling quite well??? When mum got out of the car back at her home she joked. "A new pair of shoes and a dvd box set....I am coming out with you again!!"